Ultimate Invasion #2 (2023)

The Maker had drastically changed Earth-6160's history for his own ends. Loki became King of Asgard while the Maker severed Asgard's connection to Earth by destroying the Bifrost. Maker prevented the Fantastic Four from existing by delaying the rocket launch by a few hours and the crew were never exposed to the cosmic storm; thereafter, Maker killed the crew except for the native Reed Richards along with others such as Jim Hammond and James Buchanan Barnes. Those he left alive are left under his discreet control. Despite of the changes he had made, there are still events that he cannot control. Bruce Banner still becomes the Hulk, but he was able to control his rage and became a spiritual and enlightened person. Howard Stark is alive and remains friends with Obadiah Stane in which they became co-founders of Stane/Stark Industries and created their own Iron Man suits. Maker was unable to find the frozen body of Captain America for him to murder as Project Rebirth apparently never existed in this reality. Regardless, Maker reaped the absence of Earth's paragons by establishing himself under the guise of a powerful and benevolent figure. Through his manipulations he turned Stane/Stark Industries, the Hulk, the Harada-Yoshida alliance, and the Rasputin family into world political leaders while unknowingly serving the Maker. In the present day, Howard and Obadiah along with the other world leaders (Hulk, Silver Samurai, Sunfire, Viper, Magick, Colossus, and Omega Red) are invited by the Maker to Latveria to participate in a globally televised showing of The City opening its doors after two weeks of silence. Just as the Maker prepares to greet the dignitaries, a large portal suddenly opens in the sky and out from it are a clone army consisted of Captain America, Thor, Giant Man, Wasp, and Vision, and they proceed to attack the Maker and his guests. Howard is forced to stay out of the fight as he came unarmed while Obadiah had brought his suit and battle the invaders alongside the world leaders. But Obadiah is fatally impaled by a Vision clone. This also causes his armor systems to go critical and it explodes, killing Obadiah in front of Howard, who is then rendered unconscious by the explosion. Howard later regains conscious in front of the Maker, who had brought him to a prison holding the surviving clones. The Maker explains to Howard that they are "temporal suicide bombers" from the future sent to kill the Maker (and possibly Howard too). He then orders his soldiers to bring in a group of random people in which he explains to Howard that they are modern day ancestors of the time travellers after he had examined their genetics. Then to Howard's horror, the Maker's soldiers executes the ancestors and the prisoners dies as their bodies degrades into goo, thus erasing the Maker's assassins from existence. Howard lashes out at the Maker by pointing out that this doesn't stop his killers as they would be more likely try again to erase him and what he had done by killing him when he was a baby. But the Maker replies that would not work as he reveals to Howard that he is not native to this universe, and his assassins will only come for him when he is at the height of his powers. The Maker then shows Howard the Immortus Engine, a time machine that he used to remake Howard's world into what it is now. Howard realizes the main reason why the Maker's assassins came for him is because his manipulations of history had annihilated their future and destroyed their past. Maker then reveals to Howard this is the second attempt on his life in which he removes his helmet to reveal a chunk of his upper right head along with his eye are missing as a result from the first attempt. Because of his injuries his memories are impaired and he needs Howard's help, more than anyone else on this world, is because he believes Howard is responsible for building the Immortus Engine.